NFL
By: Melo Williams
The Wisconsin Badgers (1-0) are back at the Kohl Center Friday night hosting No. 9 ranked Tennessee Volunteers (1-0) with tipoff set for 8 P.M. CT.
The Badgers are coming off an impressive season opener 105-76 win over Arkansas State setting a new single-game total points scored by one team at the Kohl Center with 105 points a record previously held by Kansas.
Like Wisconsin, Tennessee began their season with a statement win over Tennessee Tech 80-42.
Badgers head coach Greg Gard wanted a challenging non-conference schedule this season to test his players to help them grow as basketball players and as a team in preparation for the Big Ten regular season and the NCAA tournament.
Wisconsin will face three top 12 ranked teams, No. 9 Tennessee, No. 5 Marquette, and No. 12 Arizona over the next month along with dates with Providence and Virginia in between.
Tennessee is the first-ranked team of the three top 12 ranked teams Wisconsin will be battle-tested to see how they measure up against one of the best teams in college basketball.
Badgers will be looking to win Coach Gard his 11th top-10 win with six of those 10 wins coming against top-five teams.
Friday marks the third meeting between Wisconsin and Tennessee with Greg Gard as the head coach with the Badgers winning both prior matchups.
In Coach Gard’s first full season with Wisconsin, his Badgers defeated the Vols 74-62 in the quarterfinals at the 2016 Maui Invitational.
The most recent victory was in 2019 when
Wisconsin traveled to Tennessee and left Knoxville with a 68-48 win over the Volunteers.
Badgers were led by D’Mitrik Trice’s game-high 21 points, with Brevin Pritzl contributing 17 points, and then a freshman, Tyler Wahl finished with four points and five rebounds in 21 minutes.
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes spoke with the media and shared his thoughts about Wisconsin’s head coach Greg Gard and his experienced Badgers team.
Rick Barnes on Greg Gard:
“Well, Greg’s a terrific coach and I think he’s like most coaches that have been around the game a long time. When you get different personnel, you adjust to it. And you realize what guys can do well and you look at your team. And I do think that’s one thing where guys have been around the game a long time, take a guy and figure out a way to get him involved quickly and early. And I think he’s done that.”
Barnes on facing the Badgers:
“It is hard early in the year when you look at a team that has got 90% of its production coming back. They did well through the recruiting. Great fan base. Great arena to play in. Early in the year — and I was watching them before I came out to be with you guys — they’re probably closer to midseason form.”
“A really good team at passing the ball. A team that really runs good actions. They read well. They read defenses well. If you try to push them one way, they do a great job of back-cutting.”
Barnes ended by saying, “I think they make great penetrating passes and if you get spread out too much again, they do a really good job of back-cutting them and doing those types of things to get those easy baskets.”
Playbook:
1. Chucky Hepburn
If Wisconsin wants to upset No. 9 ranked Tennessee it begins with the play of junior point guard Chucky Hepburn. The Badgers will need Hepburn to be dominant on both ends of the court like he was on Monday night against the Arkansas State Red Wolves.
In 31 minutes of action vs Arkansas State, Chucky scored 20 points shooting an impressive 7-for-10 from the field, including 2-for-3 shooting from the three, six assists, and three steals contributing to Wisconsin’s 24 points off turnovers.
2. Tempo
With Wisconsin and Tennessee both being able to score and defend at an elite level, I think a major key for a UW victory is establishing and controlling the tempo of the game.
Wisconsin traditionally always played with a slower pace, but since the arrival of AJ Storr, the Badgers increased their pace of play some and showed the ability to push the tempo against Arkansas State Monday night.
If the Badgers can dictate the tempo of the game to their liking with solid backcourt play from Hepburn and Max Klesmit, Wisconsin can attack and hurt the Vols on all three levels of scoring especially in points off the fastbreak with Storr’s ability to run the floor finishing in transition.
3. Depth
Depth is one of the Badgers’ greatest assets this season. Against Arkansas State, Wisconsin had a total of eight players that scored five or more points.
Wisconsin got contributions from leading scorer Chucky Hepburn 20 points, AJ Storr 15 points, Max Klesmit 14 points, John Blackwell 12 points, Steven Crowl 9 points, Tyler Wahl 8 points and Nolan Winter scoring 6 points.
Wisconsin’s bench scored 39 points off the bench in the win, which was more bench points than the Badgers scored in a game all of last season with a total high of 24 points vs. Dayton in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Another reason Coach Gard will need his depth against Tennessee is because the Badgers may be without sophomore guard Connor Essegian who remains “day to day” ahead of Friday’s matchup with No. 9 Tennessee.
Essegian was injured after an Arkansas State defender fell over Essegian’s back as they battled for a rebound.
Connor walked off under his power and the trainer began working on Essegian’s back once he returned to the bench.
He then made his way to the stationary bike where he pedaled slowly for the remainder of the first half and was ruled questionable to return with an upper-body injury at halftime but did not return. Essegian was seen back on the stationary bike behind Wisconsin’s bench after halftime.
On Wednesday Connor did a little bit but worked mostly with the trainers and they’ll continue to monitor Essegian’s progress and see how he responds before ruling him in or out against Tennessee.
If the sharpshooter Essegian isn’t ready Gard will lean on his reserves.
“You don’t want to have injuries but if something does happen, get guys ready to go” Gard said.
“It’s nice to know that I can go to a Markus Ilver and a Lindsey and a (Kamari) McGee and a Blackwell and a Winter and a (Carter) Gilmore. They just keep going on the bench,” Gard added. “Guys are ready to contribute. That’s the start of a good team when you have that many guys who are willing to help us out.”
4. Defense
Tennessee senior guard Dalton Knecht scored 17 points with Josiah-Jordan James adding 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists against Tennessee Tech.
Tennessee’s bench is also deep and productive. The Vols bench chipped in 36 points led by Jordan Gainey 14 points.
Wisconsin must play honest defense staying home when needed or timely switching to limit Knecht and Josiah-Jordan James impact who Rick Barnes likes to run a lot of their offense through.
Conclusion:
Coming into the game, Tennessee is the favorite to win the game. However, if the Badgers can get elite play again offensively and defensively they can upset Tennessee.
Greg Gard will need elite play by his backcourt of Chucky Hepburn and Max Klesmit controlling the tempo, pressuring the ball with their defense, and huge contributions from the bench.
Friday’s tip-off is set for 8 p.m. CT. The game will be streamed only on Peacock.
Overtime Stat Facts:
Since 2001-02, when Bo Ryan and Greg Gard arrived at Wisconsin, the Badgers have gone 49-25 (.662) at the Kohl Center against Top-25 teams. That includes a mark of 14-11 against a team in the top 10.
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